A mixture of Saturday morning cartoons and over-the-top 1970's Kung Fu films, Klei Entertainment's Mark of the Ninja is everything a 2D-side scrolling stealth game can and should be. While stealth game releases are fewer and further between than they have been in years, it's refreshing to play a game that intends to take the genre back to it's roots, focusing on moving quietly and hiding, rather than high-tech gadgets and costumes.

Mark of the Ninja follows a tattooed nameless ninja, trained by his Master Azai to become one of the most powerful ninjas around. When their bunker is attacked by hordes of men with machine guns, it's up to the nameless hero to find out who is behind it, and more importantly why. This story could easily be ripped from a Kung Fu flick from 40 years ago, but thanks to Klei's brilliant animation styled graphics, Mark of the Ninja never feels like a dated experience, evoking less Bruce Lee, and more like Genndy Tartakovsky.

The nameless ninja completes missions by sneaking around levels, searching for hidden paths, and stealthily murdering foes in gruesome manner. As you progress, you'll find flags scattered throughout the environments that allow you to upgrade your abilities and tools. Overtime, you can either build the ninja up to be all-powerful, able to destroy anything in his way, or extra quiet, able to kill bad guys and hide their bodies in vents. Klei gives you the option to choose, extending Mark of the Ninja's already decent run-time (I beat the game in just over six hours). There's additionally a New Game Plus mode after you beat the campaign that allows you to replay the game with your upgraded abilities.

Mark of the Ninja does hit a rough spot of sorts, a place where the ninja is without weapons, and I found myself more ready to put down the controller during this brief segment. It's an understandable decision, and within the narrative the choice to do this makes sense, but after playing level after level where I was capable of all sorts of bad-assery, I found this slow-down a tough segment to get through. By the end though, Mark of the Ninja's narrative takes a few twists and turns, resulting in multiple endings, and I quickly forgot about this dull section of the game.

Certain points of the game offer welcome breathes of fresh air by introducing more traditional puzzle elements. Usually these require the use of the ninja's ninja skills, but sometimes they require more. For instance, one part that stuck out came when I had to drag bodies around to set off traps. Oftentimes, these puzzles result in the recovery of scrolls (there are three in each level) which reveal back story about the ninja and Azai.

Mark of the Ninja comes at a time when the stealth genre seems to be dying off. It focuses less on memorizing patterns and more on flying by the seat of your pants. It's more forgiving than, say, Splinter Cell, in that detection isn't going to result in your death (though I wouldn't chance it!). Klei Entertainment has made what is arguably the greatest stealth game this generation, and definitely the best available on XBLA.